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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian warplanes
struck Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, just hours after the extremist
group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Egyptian Coptic Christians
it had held hostage for weeks.

An armed forces spokesman announced
the strikes on state radio, marking the first time Cairo has publicly
acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist
groups seen as a threat to both countries have exploited the chaos following
the 2011 uprising.

The statement said the warplanes
targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the
"intense strikes" were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek
retribution from the killers."

"Let those far and near know
that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safeguard the security of the
country and a sword that amputates terrorism and extremism," it said.

Libya's air force meanwhile
announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, an extremist
stronghold that was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year. The
announcement, on the Facebook page of the air force chief of staff, did not
provide further details.

The video purporting to show the
mass beheading of the Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by
militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group.

The killings raise the possibility
that the extremist group — which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a
self-declared caliphate — has established a direct affiliate less than 500
miles (800 kilometers) from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in
the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now
plans to "conquer Rome."

The militants had been holding 21
Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in
December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages
were killed.

It was one of the first beheading
videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group's
core territory in Syria and Iraq, and displayed the sophisticated techniques
used in previous videos.

Libya in recent months has seen the
worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator
Moammar Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many
Islamic extremist groups.

The internationally recognized
government has been confined to the country's far east since Islamist-allied
militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have
reconstituted a previous government and parliament.

Egypt has strongly backed the
internationally recognized government, and U.S. officials have said both Egypt
and the United Arab Emirates took part in a series of mysterious airstrikes
targeting Islamist-allied forces last year.

The Egyptian government declared a
seven-day mourning period after the release of the video and President Abdel
Fattah el-Sissi addressed the nation late Sunday night.

"These cowardly actions will
not undermine our determination" said el-Sissi, who also banned all travel
to Libya by Egyptian citizens. "Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce
battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same
goals."

The U.N. Security Council meanwhile
"strongly condemned the heinous and cowardly apparent murder in Libya of
21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by an affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant," it said in a statement.

The foreign minister of the United
Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also condemned the mass
killing, calling it an "ugly crime."

"The United Arab Emirates is
devoting all its resources to support the efforts of Egypt to eradicate
terrorism and the violence directed against its citizens," he said in
comments carried by state news agency WAM.

Sheikh Abdullah added that the
killing highlights the need to help the Libyan government "extend its
sovereign authority over all of Libya's territory."

The oil-rich Emirates, along with
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, has given billions of dollars in aid to Egypt since
el-Sissi, who was then military chief, overthrew Islamist President Mohammed
Morsi in July 2013 amid massive protests against his yearlong rule.

Egypt has since waged a sweeping
crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, which it has officially
branded a terrorist organization. El-Sissi has insisted the crackdown in Egypt,
as well as support for the government in Libya, is part of a larger war on
terror.Source (AP)